A comprehensive list of games that are only problematic on AMD/ATI graphics cards

Background:-

As you may already know, PPSSPP uses an OpenGL (OGL) backend for graphics rendering.

NVIDIA has always had a long history of excellent OGL support for all their cards, dating back to the illustrious Geforce 256 itself. They are the undisputed leader for OGL implementations and their support for other OS that use OGL is flawless. E.g. Linux.

Unfortunately, AMD (previously known as ATI before being bought out) does not, even to this very day. Avid PC gamers will remember the RAGE (2011) debacle for AMD card owners due to their crappy OGL support.

AMD and AMD users are fortunate that since Direct3D (9/10/11) is the leading graphics API that is widely used in PC games, the shortcomings of AMD's OGL drivers can mostly be ignored, until an application comes along and decides to use it. Like PPSSPP.

Long story short, what this means is that there are certain implementations that are inferior in AMD's OGL drivers and this affects the playability of certain games when emulated on PPSSPP.

As an owner of such an ATI/AMD card, I intend to use this thread to list out games which currently have issues with only AMD's cards and are playable on NVIDIA's cards.

The game has broken text rendering by default. Disabling Buffered Rendering fixes the issue for NVIDIA cards. Does nothing for AMD cards and remains unplayable due to the issue. Seems to affect even older pre-DirectX 9.0c cards like the X800 series also.

The game's targetting reticule does not work during Investigation Mode by default. It requires the FramebuffersToMem hack which was recently implemented into PPSSPP as of v0.8.1-20-g5fcd521. This hack fixes the issue on NVIDIA cards. Again, it does nothing for AMD cards, and the game remains unplayable. Items are not selected properly, and are out of order.

(Update 1:- With the release of v0.8.1-325-g0eadfdc on the buildbot and the FramebuffersCPUConvert functionality now available to the masses, AMD/ATI cards finally have parity with NVIDIA's cards in this particular game. Just remember to set both FramebuffersCPUConvert = True and FramebufferstoMem = True in the ppsspp.ini file.)

(Update 2:- For users experiencing crashes when entering a certain sequence in Chapter 6, the current solution is to temporarily disable Hardware Transform until to get past that part. Further details on github here.)

(Update 3:- Instructions in Update 1 are outdated. Change Rendering Mode in Graphics Options to Read Framebuffers to Memory (CPU) to get the same effect in the latest builds)

This game is a system killer. Basically unplayable at 100% on any mobile Android/iOS device (100% means a consistent 60 VPS without ANY frameskipping switched on, since this is a fighting game which requires perfect input timing).

On the PC, decent lower end NVIDIA cards paired with reasonably modest CPUs have almost zero issues with the game, with the exception of an initial stutter when the first punch/kick connects with the enemy and the effects render.

(Update 2:- It seems like in the latest revisions (0.8.1-10xx+), turning OFF HW Transform is actually much more detrimental than keeping it ON for AMD cards. Keep HW Transform ON if you're using the latest dev builds.)

(Update 3:- The speed issue and pale characters issue have been largely resolved for AMD/ATI cards in the latest 0.9.5 git builds (from v0.9.5-373-ga6ee264 onwards). The use of "Software Skinning" combined with "Texcoord Speed Hack" is required to alleviate performance issues in this game, which is now highly playable on lower end AMD/ATI cards and CPU systems as a result.)

The game has a black screen glitches and/or funny artifacts no matter the setting. It is known that Buffered Rendering is mandatory to play the game properly from the start, but that does nothing to rectify the issue on those preHD legacy cards (e.g. X800).

This game is relatively trouble free for AMD/ATI cards, until the endgame, when you reach the final block of Tartarus, after the Tziah block (165F+).

The game will hang, and then crash PPSSPP after a few enemy encounters, without fail. This is does not happen on NVIDIA cards even with Hardware Transform.

The temporary solution to this issue is to disable Hardware Transform for now in that final block. This will incurr a performance penalty but is a guaranteed method for stable gameplay in that block at this moment.

Always disable Advanced Catalyst A.I. in your Catalyst Control Center(CCC) for PPSSPP. This is a major source of grief for many AMD users in the form of memory leaks, crashes and other problems as has been previously reported in the forums and on github. If you're using an even older and ancient X series card (e.g. X800), this does not apply to you.

2. Using a legacy card (pre 5xxx series)?

I recommend AMD Catalyst 11.11a. It has the best stability for this emulator. The 12.x and 13.x Legacy series are horrendous for 4xxx cards and below and have a tendency to crash the emulator at random or cause display driver hang ups.

2a. Using an even older X series (and below) legacy card?

Use Windows XP and these 10.2 drivers from AMD for PPSSPP. AMD/ATI's OGL driver support and performance in anything after XP for the X series is just horrible. Windows XP is still the best bet for you for getting the best performance, least amount of crashes and trouble.

NVIDIA has always had a long history of excellent OGL support for all their cards, dating back from the illustrious Geforce 256 itself. They are the undisputed leader for OGL implementations and their support for other OS that use OGL is flawless. E.g. Linux.

Unfortunately, AMD (previously known as ATI before being bought out) does not. Even to this day. Avid PC gamers will remember the RAGE (2011) debacle for AMD card owners due to their crappy OGL support.

Long story short, what this means is that there are certain implementations that are inferior in AMD's OGL drivers and this affects the playability of certain games when emulated on PPSSPP.

As an owner of such an ATI/AMD card, I intend to use this thread to list out games which currently have issues with only AMD's cards and are playable on NVIDIA's cards.

The game's targetting reticule does not work during Investigation Mode by default. It requires the FramebuffersToMem hack which was recently implemented into PPSSPP as of v0.8.1-20-g5fcd521. This hack fixes the issue on NVIDIA cards. Again, it does nothing for AMD cards, and the game remains unplayable. Items are not selected properly, and are out of order.

1. Non-Crossfire (Single) AMD card owner? Always disable Advanced Catalyst A.I. in your Catalyst Control Center(CCC) for PPSSPP. This is a major source of grief for many AMD users in the form of memory leaks, crashes and other problems as has been previously reported in the forums and on github.

2. Using a legacy card (pre 5xxx series)? I recommend AMD Catalyst 11.11a. It has the best stability for this emulator. The 12.x and 13.x Legacy series are horrendous for 4xxx cards and below and have a tendency to crash the emulator at random.

I dont know what my AMD/ATl series is they got website for that?

I worse write english so take easy on me
(even my own language realy bad T_T)

RE: A comprehensive list of games that are only problematic on AMD/ATI graphics cards

Many thanks for making such list! I would add GTA Vice City Stories which doesn't work on pre-HD ATI/AMD cards such as X series while the game with same engine a.k.a GTA Liberty City Stories runs flawlessly with it. I have X800 in my old PC. Enabling Buffered rendering gives either black screen glitch or funny artifacts, no matter which version of atioglxx.dll is being used.

RE: A comprehensive list of games that are only problematic on AMD/ATI graphics cards

(06-30-2013 10:44 AM)Danyal Zia Wrote: Many thanks for making such list! I would add GTA Vice City Stories which doesn't work on pre-HD ATI/AMD cards such as X series while the game with same engine a.k.a GTA Liberty City Stories runs flawlessly with it. I have X800 in my old PC. Enabling Buffered rendering gives either black screen glitch or funny artifacts, no matter which version of atioglxx.dll is being used.

RE: A comprehensive list of games that are only problematic on AMD/ATI graphics cards

(06-30-2013 12:03 PM)Scorpion31 Wrote: Not sure if you want to add this to your list but I do not have the pale fighters in tekken 6 with HT turned off running the game on a XFX radeon 7770 13.2 catalyst beta

Noted. Already added as a part of list under Tekken 6 entry. Thanks for the report.

Also, just to confirm, the pale characters issue usually only occurs during the character's introduction sequence and when changing their outfits/accessories in the Customize mode.

RE: A comprehensive list of games that are only problematic on AMD/ATI graphics cards

Thanks for adding game to the list! I would also add that somehow I managed to get it run by disabling buffered rendering and setting frameskipping to 3. But, it's very glitched (for instance, map, wrong scaling etc) and it isn't much playable.